Summary: The Peaky Blinders are a gang operating in early 1900s Birmingham after the war. Tommy is the leader and he starts making deals to rise up in the ranks after his men accidentally steal a crate full of Lewis machine guns. Inspector Campbell comes to Birmingham to retrieve the guns. He has a spy, Grace, infiltrate the Peaky Blinders. Grace and Tommy grow close. Tommy makes deals with Campbell and reveals he has the guns. He also allies with Billy Kimber to fight the Lee family. However he marries his brother John to the Lees and plans to betray Kimber. Tommy ends up in conflict with the IRA and Grace kills their men. Tommy and Grace fall in love and Campbell finds out. Grace leaks Tommy's plan to Billy Kimber and leaves. The Shelbys fight Kimber's men and Tommy kills him. The Peaky Blinders end up legally owning a betting ring. Grace leaves Birmingham but Campbell confronts her with a gun and a gunshot is heard.
The Good: This is another political show that came out at a time when political shows were at the height of popularity. I'm a big fan of the historical political genre so the concept of this show was right up my alley. The highlight of the show for me was watching Tommy manage the Peaky Blinders with the intention of rising up the ranks. His constant dealings with other gangs and the many betrayals and twists were always engaging to watch and the plot and dialogue was written very well. This show had a good grip on politics. Tommy himself wasn't a great character by any means but he was enjoyable to watch and he worked overall as a viewpoint for the story. The production of this show was also very good. The costumes and sets were perfectly done to encapsulate the feel of post WW1 England. I was also pleased that the show committed to the entire cast having hard English accents, making the time period feel more authentic. The technical aspects of the show were also really well done. The directing was good, the soundtrack was good, the acting was good (if unspectacular), the dialogue was good, the editing was good, etcetera. The team making the show did a very good job and that should be commended. The early parts of the show were the most fascinating to watch. In these episodes the show was still finding its feet and establishing its identity, so the issues the show would have with characters and emotional investment were not a worry yet. As such, it was easy to invest in the storylines with the hope that things would come together to make you care by the end of the season. With that optimism in mind, I found it very exciting to learn more about the factions in this world that would become key players as the season goes on. The Bad: As fun as the politics are, they have been overdone lately. With other shows like "Boardwalk Empire", "House of Cards" and "Game of Thrones" flourishing, it was always going to be difficult for yet another political thriller to shine. And "Peaky Blinders" fails to differentiate itself from these other shows in any meaningful ways. Outside of the setting, there is nothing unique about this show and there is nothing that makes it stand out. While watching these six episodes I always felt like I was watching a show devoid of heart and emotion. This show seemed to exist purely to capitalize on current trends to make money, and the characters and story were phoned in. There was no heart or message or point to this TV show, and I fail to see any reason for it to even exist. The characters were truly god awful. Tommy was the best character and yet he's nothing special. He's just yet another smart and badass character with a heart of gold and a traumatic past. I've seen this so many times before. And every side character is terrible. John is defined solely by the fact that he's a drunk that has kids, there is literally nothing else to him. And he's one of the main side characters! Arthur is just the dumb, aggressive archetype and it's every bit as boring as it sounds. Freddie is an empty character with no real traits or emotional connection, and his relationship with Ada is completely hollow. Ada herself is just the badass girl archetype who, again, completely lacks depth. And then there's Polly who is played by a decent actress but her role in the story is just perplexing to me. I don't know what motivates her or what her moral compass is, and she adds nothing to the show or its plot. She's the most wasted character on the show because she's hardly developed and nothing is done with her. The most significant characters other that Tommy are Grace and Campbell, and unfortunately they are the weakest links in this already weak cast of characters. Grace ended up being a boring trope through and through, and I was disappointed to get no depth to her whatsoever. She started off as an intriguing spy with a dark past, and she ended up becoming a generic love interest for Tommy, sparking a really bad love triangle story that bored me to tears. Campbell was a spectacular disappointment. Sam Neill gave what was the best performance on the show, and yet he was wasted with such a bad character. Campbell had potential with his introduction. He seemed smart, moral, and determined, and I was excited to see him go up against Tommy. I hoped for something similar to the Light vs L rivalry from "Death Note" which was always gripping to watch. Instead what we got was pathetic. Their conflict isn't focused on very much until the last few episodes in which Campbell devolves into a generic bad guy who is mean to women, despicable, and has no sense of morality. The show massacres the character in its final 3 episodes and turns a potentially interesting villain into a complete flop of a character. I was incredibly disappointed by this decision, and it single-handedly convinced me to drop the show, especially seeing how bland everything else was. The blandness of the story is evidenced perfectly in the climax. Nothing that happened was set up adequately, there was no depth to the storytelling whatsoever, the writing was abysmal, and I never once got emotionally invested into the storylines that were being explored. It amazes me how poorly the final act of this season was executed, and I found the decision to fixate on the love triangle rather than the gang politics to be perplexing. Furthermore, I have to scratch my head at how the show built up to this climax. It relied so heavily on us caring about the Shelby family as a whole, but nothing about this entire season ever suggested that the show was trying to make us care about them. I couldn't even remember the names of half of the characters fighting beside Tommy! The climax came and the show unfairly wanted us to invest emotionally despite putting in none of the leg work. The most blatant example of this is how the main emotional beat of the season finale was the death of Danny. I hardly even knew who Danny was and I did not care one bit that he died. How on Earth can that be the emotional core of season finale when the show puts in no effort to make us care about Danny or his relationship with other characters? I'll never be able to understand the decision-making that went on backstage. Best Episodes: E01 Episode 1: The first episode was where the show peaked and it wasn't anythign special. I was intrigued after watching it and the show hadn't disappointed me yet. Worst Episodes: E04 Episode 4: This episode had a story to tell with Freddie and Ada, but where it failed is that I never even came close to caring about what happened. E05 Episode 5: This episode had the best sequence of the show with the IRA standoff, but it's problematic because it took the show in a bad direction that led to me dropping it. E06 Episode 6: The season finale was a mess of an episode that failed to satisfy me in any way. Character of the Season: Tommy. Conclusion: I had originally planned to write more about this show but I honestly could not bring myself to do it. This ended up being a disappointingly empty show that was devoid of any meaning or reason for existence, and that’s why I don’t have the passion to write any more about it. The characters were awful, the writing gradually got worse, and I hated the direction that the story went. I got absolutely nothing out of the six hours I invested into this, and there is no way that I'll be investing any more time into this show. Is it a well produced show? Yeah. Is there a good premise? Yeah. But the story is the most important part and this story was s***. If you don't mind turning your brain off while watching television then you will probably enjoy this a lot more than I did. But if you're somebody who cares about watching a compelling story, then stay far away from "Peaky Blinders".
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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